RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 82, 31 December 1928, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Cosmos.) We are told that on no account should wild flowers be uprooted. Many a man would like to bring his wife round to that viewpoint at the present time regarding the dandelions on the lawn. The Romans decided that the first day of the New Year was an appropriate time to make presentations to their legislators. In modern times the public makes its contribution on election day. » ♦ » Mussolini has barred hand-shaking, New Year greetings, and a lot of other age-worn customs, which we may regard as a pretty good indication that he doesn’t think it will ever be necessary for him to seek*office by popular vote. • • • “How can I secure my house against burglars whilst on holiday?” writes a correspondent. Pin a notice to the front door, which reads: “Gone to chemist’s —measles in family. Back in ten minutes.” • * * Every country celebrates the New Year in its own way. In some countries, such as France and Scotkind, the New Year celebration is the most important of the year. To the French the New Year is more important than Christmas, and it is at this period that most people exchange gifts. Scotland still retains the custom of “open house” at New Year. There is a quaint old superstition among the people that he who is the first to visit a family in the New Year will be lucky and prosperous throughout the ensuing twelve months. The midnight revellers of Scotland generally carry boxes of cake and other refreshments when going from house to house. At each house the host is regaled with a bit of the cake and a sip of refreshment. No guest enters a friend’s house empty-handed, for to do so would be to frighten away prosperity for the coming year. The Chinese have been in the habit of celebrating all their holidays for the year at once. At the beginning of their New Year, they shut down all industry and close their shops for a period of several days. During their celebrations the Chinese make good use of fireworks. The Japanese also have very gay New Year celebrations. Every gatepost is ornamented, with pines and green bamboos, and red lobsters hang from many a doorway. Fruits are also used for decoration. The pines, bamboos and lobsters are symbolical of long life, strength, and happiness, while the fruits signify prosperity. ,

In this age of discovery, when comparatively few mysteries remain for scientists to uncover, we like to say that we have definitely emerged from the age of superstition. Yet, with the approach of another year, it is interestir~ to engage in a little stocktaking and review the number of customs of the Dark Ates which still survive. When such well-known men as Winston Churchill are reported to be influenced by superstitious customs, surely the man-in-the-street is entitled to his little secret beliefs and doubts as to the unseen powers governing his luck. Mr. Churchill, we are told, is in the habit of touching wood when he makes a statement which he hopes will come true. After hundreds of years of education and reading we no longer hang witches, but the great majority of people still earnestly believe in one or more of the quaint, mischievous conceits of the Dark Ages.

Sophisticated though we are, few would willingly break a mirror, while many a man will forgo his smoke rather than be the third person to light his cigarette from the one match. From the time we arise in the morning until we seek the solace of a comfortable Dillow at night we are influenced in one way or another by those superstitions which persist iu spite of our enlightenment. .We make sure to get out the “right side of the b"'d,” and on sitting down to breakfast eagerlv search the coffee cup for signs of “money.” If it is a rainy day who would dare to open the umbrella until out of doors? When rushing along for a tram, if one’s pocketbook has been left behind, the chances are that the owner will go to wo”k without It rather ' n invite the displeasure of fortune by returning to his home. His ears ring during the day, a sure sign that people are discussing him: and as he shivers from a . iden southerly blast he believes that someone is walking over his grave. As he boards a car he notes with sat’-faction that there is a seven in its number, for is not seven a lucky number? He will risk being knocked down by a motor-car rather than walk under a ladder, but perhai ’ there is some justifi-ntion for this, as! many know from experience that ill-fortune does sometimes attend the passage below a painter’s brush. A pin wil not glisten long on. the sidewalk until someone picks it up, usually in so furtive a manner that the observer sure it is done and not from a sense of economy but because to leave it lie might bring its discoverer bad luck.

One of the oldest of human instincts is fear, and out of this fear came the germ called superstition. It eased the primitive mind and moulded mass thought into strange ways of custom and belief. It swept across the whole of humanity, seeped through the bar riers of civilisation, and has found its wav even into advanced thought to become a definite part of mans personality. Thousands of magic practices and superstitions have been evolved since the days of Primitive man, all with the idea of warding off danger and inviting good tortune. Superstition spreads quickiy. a ”6 JT the wave of its popularity rode w itcu doctors and sorcerers who added new charms, and customs to wardl off the evils which threatened mankind. Such is the hold that superstition gained on man, that even some of tbe .™ ria ® greatest thinkers have subscribed to beliefs which we to-day regard as quite absurd. Sir Walter Scott would Hot visit Melrose Abbey at night b_ cause of bogies and ghosts. Napoleon had a horror of black cats. ™ the superstitious customs • which still survive have fascinating legends, attached to them, and on some future occasion the origin of many presentUay customs will be. dealt.JFAtlk.